BALTIMORE — Dec. 1, 2015 — More than 13,000 gallons of untreated wastewater flooded into the Gwynns Falls in Baltimore this week after a sewer line became clogged with grease, trash and other debris, according to a press release.
The overflow from a manhole in the 800 block of North Hilton Street began Monday and was abated by crews from the Baltimore City Department of Public Works on Tuesday, noted the release.
Warning signs have been posted at the stream, and the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Baltimore City Health Department have been notified.
Local people are advised to avoid contact with urban streams due to possible pollution, stated the release.
The incident came just two weeks after a break in a 21-inch sanitary sewer main caused an estimated 55,400 gallons of sewage to spill into the Herring Run Stream from a sewer manhole.
That overflow started Tuesday, Nov. 17 and continued until early Saturday, Nov. 21 due to difficulties accessing the site.
Baltimore is currently in the construction phase of a $1 billion overhaul of its sewage infrastructure as part of a federal consent decree to stop overflows and leaks. The agreement, signed in 2002, aims to address “continuing hazards posed by hundreds of illegal wastewater discharges of raw sewage from Baltimore’s wastewater collection system.”
City officials want to renegotiate the deal to allow repairs to extend past the January 1, 2016 deadline, the Associated Press reported.
You can find the entire release here.
